Looking to the positive, for now they are a closed door. This problem has given opportunity for others to pick up the slack. Some RCM plans are available on the various free download sites. What isn't available can be met with similar designs from other plans. Best I like is the wealth of UK and other nations outside the US plans. There are a lot of very appealing similar designs such as Veron, Aeromodeler, Frog, OK Models Pilot, you-name-it, etc.

Yes, it is a shame, but what can we do? Look as we pass by the wreck and keep moving forward.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FlyerInOKC

We move on and hope for the best but prepare for the worse.

You are right about sources George.

If any one were to to to pick this up (should the opportunity present it' self) There is like to be a heck of a mess and a good deal of lost altogether plans.

Oh well move on and either get plans from some one else or the other locations or just come up with something else

I don't have a lot of plans but maybe I should do an inventory. I know I will not build all that I have.

Well guys, looks like an epic era of the hobby has finally come to a sad and tragic end. As reported above the domain name was not renewed by the owners of the website and that passed last week. While people were able to still navigate to the site that was because of how internet servers work and dns names are usually cached in servers, allowing you to get a server even after the name is now longer valid. If you go to the site you you will now pull up to what those of us in IT work call domain squatters. These are people that scoop up domains that expire like this hoping to resell them to the owners at a hiked up price, or to somebody else that is wanting to steal the domain.

Regardless of what has happened. The upside is that nobody will ever be burned by those at RCM because they now have no website to take in money and not fulfill orders.

The really huge downside is the huge treasure trove of plans that now seem to be lost and gone, and my now be lost forever. That pits a huge lump in my stomach to even think that. I would hat to think that we may never see those plans again. I know that when RCM magazine stopped being printed I called and offered to buy the plans service in order to make sure that it was also available to modelers. I know the AMA and Model Airplanes News has also made similar offers. So it's really a tragedy that could have been avoided if they would have taken one of our offers and sold the plans service to one of us.

If in the off chance that anybody from RCM plans service is reading this message (or somebody out there can possible get them a message) I will restate my original offer, I am still interested in purchasing the plans service. The plans of RCM are not just a historic gem from the hobby, but they are also a great source that can be used to bring new plane, both kits and ARF's, to our hobby and the plans need to be maintained by somebody that has a vested interested in seeing that the hobby benefits from those plans. I would like to think that I am that person. So please contact me by PM here, or you can email me , ken@rcuniverse.com

Well guys, looks like an epic era of the hobby has finally come to a sad and tragic end. As reported above the domain name was not renewed by the owners of the website and that passed last week. While people were able to still navigate to the site that was because of how internet servers work and dns names are usually cached in servers, allowing you to get a server even after the name is now longer valid. If you go to the site you you will now pull up to what those of us in IT work call domain squatters. These are people that scoop up domains that expire like this hoping to resell them to the owners at a hiked up price, or to somebody else that is wanting to steal the domain.

rcmplans.com expired on 08/16/2014 and is pending renewal or deletion.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RCKen

Regardless of what has happened. The upside is that nobody will ever be burned by those at RCM because they now have no website to take in money and not fulfill orders.

Unfortunately, it rings of a hollow victory, as I agree with your next statement.

Quote:

The really huge downside is the huge treasure trove of plans that now seem to be lost and gone, and my now be lost forever. That pits a huge lump in my stomach to even think that. I would hat to think that we may never see those plans again. I know that when RCM magazine stopped being printed I called and offered to buy the plans service in order to make sure that it was also available to modelers. I know the AMA and Model Airplanes News has also made similar offers. So it's really a tragedy that could have been avoided if they would have taken one of our offers and sold the plans service to one of us.

Whoever is the owner of RCM Plans has been unresponsive thus far. Did they lose their offices for non-payment of lease? Reproduction equipment repossessed? Could those plans have wound up in the trash by the owner of the building? I'm purely speculating.

Quote:

If in the off chance that anybody from RCM plans service is reading this message (or somebody out there can possible get them a message) I will restate my original offer, I am still interested in purchasing the plans service. The plans of RCM are not just a historic gem from the hobby, but they are also a great source that can be used to bring new plane, both kits and ARF's, to our hobby and the plans need to be maintained by somebody that has a vested interested in seeing that the hobby benefits from those plans. I would like to think that I am that person. So please contact me by PM here, or you can email me, ken@rcuniverse.com Ken

Ken, that would be great if you or one of the other entities could purchase the plans service. I sometimes wonder if their plans assets would be auctioned off by whomever (again speculating). Yes, sadly thus far it is an end of an era of a once well respected plans house that provided plans at reasonable cost and efficiency.

Awhile back I suggested, or posed the idea anyway, that we should pool our resources of RCM Plans by means of a directory. Thereby making available at least as many as possible from our own collections.
I have a local office supply store copy my plans into full size .pdf so I can save them for later. They usually don't charge me for that.
May I suggest again that we do such a thing? I don't know about making web pages, or the like, but I know that once we get it moving there are many of us who would be willing to provide plans.
I'll go catalog what I have from RCM and post a list very soon.

That's right folk's the RCM Plans site is back up once again. It seems that their security certificate has expired, so you get a security warning page. But, if you click the ignore link, you go right back to the same old RCM Plans site, we all know, and love (NOT).

Problem is, I would expect a legitimate site to have an explanation for the outage, lack of responses, under new management, here's our staff, etc. Lend a feeling that you are dealing with real people. In this case, there is no other sign of life, not even a renewed security certificate or revised web page, etc. Thus, I find it difficult in light of the previous recent history to even entertain an order from them.

That's right folk's the RCM Plans site is back up once again. It seems that their security certificate has expired, so you get a security warning page. But, if you click the ignore link, you go right back to the same old RCM Plans site, we all know, and love (NOT).

And if you notice, the prices are higher!

Whoever is behind the wheel has figured out there is no repercussion for stealing at 20-30-40$ a pop and are going to squeeze the fruit for all its worth. The lack of a security cert. will scare people off but those determined to give their money away wont be deterred. There are LOTS of folks over seas whose first language is not English that have been ripped off simply because warnings of these people have not reached their country. There are people and websites still pointing and recommending to rcmplans and there are those that still cower in fear of their "copyrights".

I'm afraid that plans resource is gone, gone, gone. I'm convinced that whomever is now in control has no interest other than stealing money and would not be surprised if any of the original mylars still exist much less cared for.

Well guys, this isn't looking very good. The front page of the renewed rcmplans.com states that they were locked out of their domain (see image below) and that they had no access to the website until the domain name and locked out with their hosting company. They website states that the domain name has now been renewed and they are now getting back up and running and will being making things right. They state that they will refund any monies for orders not fulfilled or will get the product shipped out. They also state that they will be getting back up and running and will be getting the RCM plans service back to where is should be servicing the modeling community.

Most you here know my love for the hobby and that I want to do anything that I can to further the RC hobbies. So with this in mind I had planned to try and contact the RCM plans service to let them tell their side of the story and let us all know that they are back in the swing of things. I went to the Contact Us (see image below) page and found the number for the RCM plans service and was a bit dismayed to find that both of the numbers are not in service. This does not look good at all for the RCM plans service right now. Their front page may say that they are going to change their ways and be sending out plans, but when we can't even call them on the phone that makes it a bit hard to believe. I don't know if anybody from RCM Plans is following this thread or will see this, but if they are I am reaching out for them to contact me. Please PM me so that we can sit down and talk about where RCM plans is going. I don't want to rake RCM plans through the coals. Trust me, I really do want to see RCM Plans succeed so please let me help you do that. On the other hand, if you continue to deceive the hobby people I will do what I can to make everybody aware of what's going on. The choice is your's to make. Personally I would rather help you to succeed.

I have one other option that I may try as well, and that is to simply order a plan and see what happens. If anybody out there has ordered a plan since they have made the claims that they are back up and running please PM me so that I can get the details on that order, regardless if you got the plans or not. I would like to know either way.

Ken, I'm pretty sure you'd be wasting your money. In the various threads about RCM Plans over the last couple of years here and on other forums I've seen mention of them putting the same message up for all to read before. Likely it simply generates a new round of easy money and no plans just like the last time they posted the same drivel.

I'm afraid that the marvelous resource is lost to us until someone new that has a shred of personal integrity takes over.

Ken, I'm pretty sure you'd be wasting your money. In the various threads about RCM Plans over the last couple of years here and on other forums I've seen mention of them putting the same message up for all to read before. Likely it simply generates a new round of easy money and no plans just like the last time they posted the same drivel.

I'm afraid that the marvelous resource is lost to us until someone new that has a shred of personal integrity takes over.

I think that you don't understand my motivation here. Since somebody has gone to effort to post that RCM Plans back up and running and servicing the RC community I am going to the effort to see if this is really true or not. My sole effort here is to find out if what they state is actually the truth or not. Yes, we can simply go by what has happened in the last few years and and assume that they are going to not deliver again. But since they have stated that they have fixed their ways and are going to start delivering to clients again I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to prove themselves. We'll see what happens from there. But as far as myself and RCU is concerned we are going to at least give them a fair chance to prove themselves and not make wild assumptions with no proof. Now once I have proof in hand that they haven't changed their ways, then by all means I'll label them as having not changed their ways and still ripping off the RC community. But I won't do it until I have absolute proof. Plain and simple.

In my opinion the statement that they are up and running is a bunch of crap! Their explanation doesn't add up! How would them being locked out of their system keep them from filling my order that was sent by US Mail and paid for by a US Postal Money Order?

I think that you don't understand my motivation here. Since somebody has gone to effort to post that RCM Plans back up and running and servicing the RC community I am going to the effort to see if this is really true or not. My sole effort here is to find out if what they state is actually the truth or not. Yes, we can simply go by what has happened in the last few years and and assume that they are going to not deliver again. But since they have stated that they have fixed their ways and are going to start delivering to clients again I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to prove themselves. We'll see what happens from there. But as far as myself and RCU is concerned we are going to at least give them a fair chance to prove themselves and not make wild assumptions with no proof. Now once I have proof in hand that they haven't changed their ways, then by all means I'll label them as having not changed their ways and still ripping off the RC community. But I won't do it until I have absolute proof. Plain and simple.

Ken

Problem is, they stated the very same thing on their website last March and April (much of it word for word) and guess what? Nothing came from it !
This is nothing more than a regurgitation of the same ol' same ol'.

I think that you don't understand my motivation here. Since somebody has gone to effort to post that RCM Plans back up and running and servicing the RC community I am going to the effort to see if this is really true or not. My sole effort here is to find out if what they state is actually the truth or not. Yes, we can simply go by what has happened in the last few years and and assume that they are going to not deliver again. But since they have stated that they have fixed their ways and are going to start delivering to clients again I am going to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to prove themselves. We'll see what happens from there. But as far as myself and RCU is concerned we are going to at least give them a fair chance to prove themselves and not make wild assumptions with no proof. Now once I have proof in hand that they haven't changed their ways, then by all means I'll label them as having not changed their ways and still ripping off the RC community. But I won't do it until I have absolute proof. Plain and simple.

Ken

Ken,
IF, I were a running crooked operation such as this, I might be monitoring this thread. I might think that if I full fill 1, 2, or 3 orders word would get out that I'm back to being an "honest Joe". The orders might start flying in again. I then might think that there were little to no consequences before, so I'm going back to my evil thieving ways. More modelers pissed off again. Just saying!

I agree with Ken. This time, they state they are under new management. It is too early to tell. If indeed it is under new management, we should shortly see corrections to their information, updated contact information, and revisions. Should one send in an order yet? No, not me yet. I'll wait and see what transpires first.

With all due respect Ken, I wouldn't send good money after bad. That same message was their attempt last winter. I don't know if it is a deliberate attempt at a scam, or just that they don't know what they are doing.
Either way, I wouldn't waste money. I tried contacting them several ways and several times when they posted that on the website last winter, NO answer ever came. Not a single reply. USPS will only give you a 'receipt' of the certified letter, but can't make them reply.
Email doesn't work, nor do any phone messages.
Sorry Gentlemen, but I think we are losing a great treasure here.

Wow it just seems that the hobby is shrinking.i have only been in tc since 1971 and alot of changes are taking place that give me personally a sense of loss of a great hobby.so where do you get plans.the only other service I know of is traplet.there must be a way to get access to all the plans rc and flying and Carstens have.i have used all of them at one point or another.i have seen some friends just walk away from the hobby upset about some things.at 65 I plan to enjoy this hobby as long as I can.but seeing fields gone and lawsuits with the faa makes me wonder what in the hell is going on anymore.

I tried to order some plans in January of this year. I placed the order, credit card was charged. After about 8 weeks no plans so I contact them thru their website. The guy that replied made the same comment that the business was under new management and they were working to get access to their site. I replied and asked some questions and got on response. I filed a claim against them with my credit card company and after about a week the charge was reversed only to be charged again about 2 weeks later. Calls to them and the credit card company did not resolve the problem. I am still out the $40+ for the plans. My point here is that the guy/girl making comments on their website are saying the same thing they told me more 9 months ago.

I agree with others in that it is really sad that this wonderful compilation of plans might/is no longer available to the modelers. Really sad.